From Politico:
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15388.html(snip)
President-elect Barack Obama’s selection of Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) as his White House chief of staff is the latest demonstration of a quality Obama showed repeatedly over the course of his campaign: He’s willing to do what it takes to win.
If his goal had been to create a cordial bipartisan tone in Washington — much less a calm, profanity-free West Wing — Obama would have looked elsewhere.
The selection of Emanuel, one of the Democratic Party’s most effective operatives over the past two decades, was a powerful signal of Obama’s determination to be effective under the existing rules of the Washington game.
“He’s from the Lombardi wing of the party — he’s a guy who wants to win at any cost and will do whatever it takes,” said John Lapp, a former top Emanuel aide at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. Lapp called Emanuel “the best possible pick — a perfectionist and fighter who loves the president<-elect> like a brother.”
If so, he’s a sibling who long ago showed he knows how to talk back in the family. As a longtime aide to Bill Clinton, Emanuel was known for his willingness to talk bluntly to colleagues from the president on down.
When Hillary Rodham Clinton and then-White House chief of staff Mack McLarty unsuccessfully tried to ease him out of the West Wing during Clinton’s turbulent first year in 1993, Emanuel skillfully fought for his position. He told McLarty that he was not leaving unless Bill Clinton told him to his face, knowing that the conflict-averse president would not do it.
Emanuel stayed put, showing survival skills that have rarely wavered in the 15 years since.
Although Emanuel is undeniably a partisan fighter, his selection is not an ideological statement. The Chicago Democrat does not share the reflexively liberal views of many of his House colleagues. In the Clinton years, he helped pass the North American Free Trade Agreement and pushed for anti-crime and other centrist measures.
Emanuel is a composite of three distinct models of chief of staff: the personal confidant, the prominent public figure and the Washington operative.
Like McLarty, Emanuel is a close friend of the president-elect, from his hometown of Chicago. Like later Clinton chief Leon Panetta and President Bush’s first chief Andrew Card, he’s a well-known figure with an independent stature and reputation. And like Clinton chief John Podesta and current Bush chief Josh Bolten, he has the soul of an inside-Washington operator.
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